1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for feeding paper to a paper feeding mechanism of a printer which prints on the paper while the paper is supported by a platen.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In the art of printing on cut sheets, there is known a printer equipped with an automatic sheet feeder which has a paper stacker for storing a stack of cut sheets and which is adapted to automatically feed the cut sheets one after another from the paper stacker toward the platen of printer, when the platen is placed in an automatic feed mode. Generally, the printer equipped with such an automatic sheet feeder may be switched, upon manipulation of a suitable operator-controlled member, from the automatic feed mode to a manual feed mode wherein the printer is loaded with a cut sheet which has been manually inserted by the operator. The automatic sheet feeder is arranged such that the top of the stack of cut sheets is held in pressed contact with a feed roller of the sheet feeder, so that the top sheet is fed from the paper stacker. To prevent the cut sheets from being fed from the paper stacker in the manual feed mode, provisions are made for moving the stack of paper and the feed roller away from each other when the automatic feed mode is replaced by the manual feed mode. However, the feed roller is kept operatively connected to a drive source and uselessly driven by the drive source even in the manual feed mode. This means that an unnecessary load is applied to the drive source, resulting in a waste of energy and a shortening of the service life of the associated components.